


Yes, No, Maybe

by threewalls



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Asexual Character, Kink Negotiation, M/M, Mild Painplay, Misunderstandings, Role-Playing Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 09:56:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4055716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threewalls/pseuds/threewalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Sidney doesn't know how you'd plot a sadomasochistic switch on a 3 x 3 grid with axes labelled Good - Evil and Lawful - Chaotic."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt at The Sin Bin about Sid misunderstanding what Geno meant by "Dungeon Master". Sid thinks S&M, and wonders how they'd make that work. (But Geno meant more like D&D.)
> 
> Thanks to my beta.

Geno's hockey is gorgeous and he's so funny. He's either happy moving slow or they're just hockey flirting, but either way, their chemistry’s really working for Sidney. Right up until one night, when Geno's talking about the house he wants to move out into.

More privacy's not the worst thing, for sure, but it's what Geno wants the privacy for. This is a conversation that happens under the influence of several bottles of vodka that Geno assures Sidney is worth drinking (some kinds aren't? Sidney can't tell the difference) but some of the details are so unexpected that they stick right through Sidney's hangover. Geno was a dungeon master back in Russia, hasn't been able to play like that in Pittsburgh and misses it. Sidney also remembers the reach of Geno's arm across the breadth of his shoulders, Geno leaning in: that he'd love to play with Sidney.

Sidney eases back on the hockey flirting after that, because, well, BDSM isn't something that he knows a lot about. He and Geno work so well as part of the same team because they're at each other's level. But it's not just that Sidney is a rookie when it comes to whips and chains -- he doesn't even know if he's interested in any of that stuff. Finding out if they're incompatible should be step one.

\---

They bring the Cup to Pittsburgh, Geno buys his house-- and moves his on-again girlfriend into it. But it's hard to be sad the summer they have the Cup, and Sidney can look into this BDSM thing without needing a partner to do it for.

Sidney's never been that excited by sex. He's touched his own dick and he's played hockey; there's never been a contest. But pushing his body to its physical limits, through pain, through what he thinks he's capable of to the endorphins on the other side: that sounds much more interesting. Bondage sounds like an interesting way to test his flexibility. And trust is-- important to him.

Sidney picks up new books when he's got time, mixing technique and memoir. Aftercare sounds like a reasonable combination of physical and emotional cool down periods. He experiments with ice and wax. Sidney learns knots and practises lacing his legs together in silk rope, alternating black and gold. It's good to have a hobby.

\---

It's better to have hockey. 

After he's finally concussion symptom-free, after the lock-out ends, sometimes Sidney presses fingertips into his bruises after a game and breathes.

\---

It's not just about Geno, but Sidney doesn't try very hard to find someone else to play with. He's the face of the NHL, Hockey Canada and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The thud of Sidney's favourite belt on his inner thigh is better than his hand on his own dick, but neither of them beat his stick on a puck. 

What he and Jack did in their hotel room before the draft was about the draft. Jack prefers sex with girls; Sidney at twenty-five is just like Sidney at eighteen in at least one respect: he still fantasises more about what he could be doing on the ice than in a bed. 

And Matt-- well, Sidney thinks he knows a lot more about what he might want to try than he did back that summer that Matt had been generous about helping him experiment with gay sex. He doesn't feel like pressing for more help, not when he’d wanted to try barely anything Matt suggested back then. 

It's not just about Geno, even if his hockey is still gorgeous and his jokes are still funny. Geno, who still stretches his arm out across the back of couches when he's sitting beside Sidney and seems to have a talent for becoming no longer single just at the moment when Sidney's worked himself up to mention he's not as vanilla as he once thought he was. (Vanilla's not just a flavour of cheesecake, G, Sidney imagines himself saying... and doesn't, for obvious reasons.)

\---

Geno signs his contract extension for as long as the new CBA will allow. 

That summer, Sidney has learnt about polyamory (probably a no for him), asexuality (probably a yes-- and doesn't that explain some things?) and has educated guesses about his hard and soft limits. 

Sidney's sure he leans either way when it comes to pain, and to tying up. (Geno's got huge hands and he's also so-- bendy.) But Sidney's not sure where he falls when it comes to control. How is he supposed to test that out on his own? He loves being the playmaker, but there's also something so great about scoring with what he's given, trusting in his teammates to get it to him where he needs to be. Does that make him a switch? "Dungeon master" makes Geno sound pretty dominant. 

But Geno is someone that Sidney loves to talk hockey with, to talk about their hockey together. Sidney knows he's a better player for Geno's eyes on his play. Sidney's tried to catch up on kink theory and skills training, but Geno's still the veteran when it comes to this stuff. Before they played together on the ice, they both went out last, and they resolved that.

Sometimes, Sidney thinks about what if he and Geno could just be friends who talk about kink. People do; Sidney's read about it. He's almost asked if Geno could recommend him new books, even lend him some, before realising that Geno's books will all be in Russian. Sidney has a lot of time to read while his jaw is healing. He knows he couldn't be happy just talking about anything he really wants that Geno was still getting to _do_. 

When Sidney learns that Geno's coming back to Pittsburgh single, he thinks it can't hurt to ask.


	2. Chapter 2

They get breakfast at a place that Geno found a few years back that opens early. Sidney is an early riser, but not as early as Geno with end-of-summer jetlag. It's still dark out and the shop smells of things baking. 

Their conversation is Geno telling Sidney stories from his summer adventures and Sidney being about awake enough to smile back. They're going to be playing hockey again together soon.

Sidney is technically living in his house, but it's also technically still getting built. He has a couch and a bed, and, ok, maybe that's all they'll need, but Sidney is expecting them to take this new development in their relationship as slow as they've taken all the others. And, anyway, three years makes for a tradition. Sidney's house wasn't an option before.

\--- 

Geno's big grin is the first thing Sidney's eyes focus on when he slips out of his accidental (but still traditional) mid-morning nap. There's -- oh, god -- a damp patch on Geno's shirt. Sidney sits up and scrubs at his mouth.

The "Holmes on Homes" Sidney _thinks_ they'd been watching before is now... nothing. Geno's den doesn't have windows, so Sidney can't judge the passing of time by the light.

"Maybe we play Xbox," Geno suggests. "If you think you stay awake."

There might be better, more careful ways to broach the topic, but Sidney doesn't want to wait. Patience isn't waiting for the right moment, it's waiting for a moment that's good enough to try to make the play.

"I thought we could talk about playing something else."

Sidney unfolds the sheets, smoothing the creases. He didn't trust leaving his coat in the hall.

"I like to kiss-- yes, no, maybe?" Geno asks, reading from the checklist. "What you think?"

"There's one set for each of us to fill out. This way we can compare each other's likes/dislikes/maybes. Keep reading. It's only vanilla stuff for the first page."

Geno frowns, and fingers the edge of the pages. "You like all this?" 

"Not all of it. There are a lot of possibilities. Some things won't be practical during the season, but for the checklist, I tried to be comprehensive excluding anything obviously illegal."

Sidney silently counts to one hundred. And then to two hundred. Geno's still reading page three. Or possibly just staring at it.

"Hey, G--" he starts.

And stops just as quickly at the total incomprehension on Geno's face. Even when Geno didn't know hockey vocabulary in English, he still knew hockey. That had once been the only way they'd communicated.

"Before you bought this house, you once said you wanted more privacy than you had at Gonch's, so you could play with-- you told me that, back in Russia, you were a dungeon master--"

"Ok," Geno interrupts, holding up his hands. "Yes, I'm DM, Sid. But it's play to tell story together, not-- I'm DM for RPG, you know, role-playing game?"

"You don't mean the sort of roleplay like, 'But it's my draft year, Coach! I'll do anything for more ice time,' do you?"

Sidney hasn't let himself sound so whiny since he got the C. Hearing himself sound like that is the opposite of a turn-on, but so much more importantly, it lights comprehension in Geno's eyes.

"Uh, that's on page seven," Sidney tells him. "If that's what you like."

Geno barely finds the right page before patting Sidney on the thigh with a grin, and standing up for one of the bookshelves on the far side of the room.

Page seven is not very informative. Sidney hadn't gotten any further by himself than "roleplay - military" and "roleplay - fire service", so he'd taken the rest of the section from a list in one of his books. 

Sidney shuffles the pages back into order in time for Geno to sit right back down next to him. He looks more excited than Sidney understands, given the situation and his gross misunderstanding of what Geno had meant five years ago. 

Geno hands him what might be one of the only English language books in the room, glossy pages spread open. The top of the page reads "character sheet", and the rest of the page is broken up into spaces for character traits: disposition, skills, goals, quests. It sounds more like "capture the flag" than "spank me silly."

"They're little bit same," Geno says, pointing at Sidney's abandoned worksheets. "Find out what player like, don't like. It's good planning."

On the worksheet in Geno's book, sexuality is two lines with tick boxes. Asexuality isn't one of the three options under Orientation, but your character could have a libido that's Low (or Average or High). Sidney doesn't know how you'd plot a sadomasochistic switch on a 3 x 3 grid with axes labelled Good - Evil and Lawful - Chaotic.

"For a different sort of game than the ones you usually play," Sidney says.

"Usually RP with friends, not, you know, girlfriend," Geno says. "Boyfriend, it's different for me. But you want to play like this-- with me?"

"Not if this isn't your thing. That's one of the things I like best about kink. You only do what you like together."

No, that's still him sounding young and whiny. Wonderful. Sidney hopes he's remembering enough of his media training to keep it from his face, but he wants to sink into the floor.

Geno runs a hand through his hair.

"Yes, but, Sid, you like me?" he asks. "Because before, years before, I think maybe you like me, but then I think, no, just I want Sidney Crosby to like me."

"I did-- I do like you. I started looking into stuff like this because I thought you were into it." 

Geno's smiling at Sidney. He takes one of Sidney's hands in his, and Sidney wishes he couldn't feel how warm Geno's hand is, or the weight of their joined hands on his thigh.

Geno likes him. Geno likes Sidney, has liked Sidney, and he's vanilla as Sidney once thought he was. As vanilla as Sidney now knows he isn't.

Geno is saying that he hasn't tried most of the kinks he recognises from Sidney's checklist. That he thought people waited until they were bored with the usual things before they tried whips and chains.

"Some people aren't interested in ... the usual things," Sidney tries to explain, but it doesn't appear to dent Geno's happiness. Yet.

"Two guys, what's usual?" Geno asks. "I'm not try before. What's usual you don't like?" 

"Uh, penetrative sex is a definite no for me, either way round."

"Ok." 

Geno says it so quickly and easily and unexpectedly that Sidney almost misses it. Almost can't believe it, but Geno's "ok" is written in the ease of his shoulders and the softness in his mouth. Even Matt's "ok, Sid," had been followed up by his declaration that they didn't have to, but that Matt did.

"Sid, you like to kiss," Geno asks, "yes, no, maybe?" He's smirking now, making a joke about Sidney's worksheets. 

Sidney deserves this. He handed Geno pages of sub-culturally specific English vocabulary and thought that would prevent further misunderstandings. He should have written out the checklist in the crude but clearer sexual vocabulary of chirps to start with.

"Really? You don't want to fuck me?"

"You don't want," Geno says with the lilt that makes it a question.

"No, I don't, but there's two of us here."

That sounded generous in Sidney's head, but he can see the storm brewing in Geno's expression.

"You want I make you?" Geno asks. "Sid say no, no, but I make you...?"

"No!" Sidney says. 

Yes, that sort of negotiated, consensual consent-play is something he's run across, but Sidney has had enough trouble getting people to believe him about what he actually wants to muddy the waters like that.

"No, no, that's not-- I want to know what you want, even if it's something I don't want."

"I want to kiss you," Geno says, petulant, short. "Maybe you don't like. I ask and you only talk about not want to fuck."

"I don't--"

"Yes, Sid. No fucking, it's ok," Geno interrupts, and sighs. "Anything you _like_?"

"Uh..."

"You make big list," Geno points out. "Ten pages, nothing you like?"

"I do like kissing," Sidney says. "Certain types of kissing. Not much tongue--" 

Geno rolls his eyes at that, but Sidney ignores him. This sort of teasing is a positive sign; Geno shuts down if he's hit prolonged sulking. He's paying too much attention to what Sidney is saying, and to Sidney's mouth, for that.

"But I like teeth, you know, biting. I like... feeling it... after. You know, like, bruises after a game when you know you've played well?"

"Everybody know Sidney Crosby loves hockey."

"It's not--" Sidney protests, but Geno just looks at him, eyebrows raised. "Ok, everything's better when it's hockey, for sure. But what I meant was that no one has ever kissed me too hard."

Geno reaches out, palms poised almost touching Sid's jaw. "You want I'm try?" he asks.

"Yes," Sidney says, and it's the last thing he says that's language for a while.

When Geno breaks away to breathe, to grin at Sidney, to ask: "Good?", Sidney's lips are still buzzing, still sore. He's also grinning. 

"Yes," Sidney says. "Like that." 

His eyes flicker closed when Geno presses his thumb along Sidney's lower lip.

But then Geno's gone, back at the bookshelf that must hold his role-playing books. The book Geno brings back is definitely in Russian, but the cover art is a bust of a Roman general, crowned by laurel leaves, blood dripping down from marble fangs.

"Good choice," Sidney says. His mouth still feels amazing.

Geno grins, preening. He lifts his arm up along the back of the couch, and Sidney moves into the space that creates. "Talk me through how your kind of roleplay works, G."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My beta asked me for more detail about Sid and Geno roleplaying, so here is 5+1 headcanons about Sidney and Geno's first roleplaying game.

**1\. Geno is technically their DM, even though there's just the two of them playing.**

Geno is very good at keeping track of where they are in the "plot" no matter how long it's been since they actually had time to play. Sidney is getting better at reacting to the plot prompts that Geno hands him, but Geno is just better at the imagination building of settings and threats for their characters to interact with. 

Sidonius and Eugenius are the names of actual ancient Romans. Sidney gets excited about that, but Geno vetoes using those names for their characters. Sometimes you want to ask a question to the player, not the character, and switching names is an easy way to do that. They settle on Patricius for Sidney and Valerius for Geno, names which are equally historically accurate, and who quickly become Patrick and Valeri.

(1a. Sidney's half-finished, half-furnished house turns out to be an excellent stage for wandering around the fake nearly Dark Age Rome of DM Geno's imaginings.)

**2\. Sidney's character is a barbarian (of unspecified provenance), so he can wear pants.**

They don't make much of an effort to have historically accurate roleplay or historically accurate costuming. Sidney find it helps get back into character when he slips into his T-shirt and cut-off sweat shorts that he now keeps set aside for his character. Geno drapes himself in a bed sheet, over a T-shirt and boxer shorts, and calls himself good to go. After about five attempts and counting, he's gotten good at keeping his "toga" on (and also now uses safety pins).

**3\. Geno's character is a vampire.**

Whenever Sidney's character asks him about where Geno's character is from, Geno makes up something. These somethings don't always connect in any obvious fashion, but hey, Geno's character is a vampire. He's lived a long time, a lot longer than Sid's character, so why couldn't he have had a period living like that? This also explains why Geno knows so much about everything. 

( 3a. Sidney's character is a soldier. He knows about soldiering, mostly from playing years of SOCOM, and is *excellent* plotting how their characters are going to get from A to B and achieving their objectives by asking Geno the right questions.

3b. They always achieve their objectives.)

**4\. Their characters meet at the Coliseum, at the late night section of some gladiatorial/ beast hunting games.**

They're both very good at calling the results of the bouts, and get competitive about betting. But at some point during the night, the general that Sidney's character served under and who is his patron in Rome is stabbed and everyone, of course, blames his barbarian second-in-command.

(But I have how many years of loyal service, Sidney asks? 

You're not Roman, Geno-as-DM says. They're never think you Roman.

Sidney's face goes blank as he thinks through his next move. Are you Roman, he asks, and gets a predictably evasive answer.

When Geno-as-vampire asks Sidney-as-soldier to follow him under the stage, he goes.)

Several days in game time later, they are now trapped in some catacombs off the Via Appia (the Catacombs of San Sebastiano, Geno would interrupt). A cave-in has cut off their only exit. The sun can't get in, but they can't get out. Sidney's character hasn't slept for more than a day. Geno's character hasn't fed for longer than that-- not since the first night (game time) when Sidney's character discovered what Geno's really was. 

Several months in real time later, and roleplaying these characters fighting (and flirting) under and around the city of Rome has given them both time to get used to each other as something other than teammates and friends. To have more discussion out of scene and out of the game about what they like and don't like and where they'd like to take things together. Sidney knows he could keep buying time by asking Geno-as-DM more questions, but he's happy taking the obvious option to further the obvious plot. 

Sidney slumps to the ground (his bedroom floor), backing up against the wall. "Looks like there's only one way out," he says. He rolls his head to the side, baring his neck.

Geno is kneeling in front of him in an instant. "You want--?" he asks, fingers reverently stroking Sidney neck to collarbone.

"I want to get out of here, Valeri."

There is some discussion of getting Sidney's T-shirt off. Sidney doesn't think that Geno will make that much of a mess drinking from him.

"For bandages," Geno insists.

Sidney huffs and lifts his arms, so that between them, they can pull his tunic up over his head. 

He feels a little cold, at least until Geno's leaning close over him. He's straddling one of Sidney's thighs and bracing his weight with an elbow against the wall above Sidney's head. His other hand rests light on Sidney's chest.

"You want, Padya?" Geno asks, so close that Sidney can feel his breath on his skin.

Sidney just nods and closes his eyes.

Geno's mouth is hot but soft on Sidney's neck, kissing him again and again, the closest they can have to biting, feeding. Sidney can't even feel his teeth. 

He murmurs softly: "OOC, but I really wish you could leave marks."

Sidney gasps at the sudden unexpected flourish of pain, Geno pinching his nipple.

"You want?" Geno asks, and it doesn't matter if it's Geno or his character asking. It's barely a real question.

Sidney swears, tangling his fingers in Geno's hair to hold his mouth close. "More," he says, and gasps again when Geno's pinching fingers twist.

**5\. They have post-roleplay session aftercare/debriefing.**

They both sometimes get erections while playing. Sidney never wants to do anything with his, but Geno does, sometimes. This means that Sidney's usually the one wandering out of whatever room they've finished in for the kitchen, bringing back Gatorade and snacks. Sidney always knocks before re-entering the room. (They've found that Sidney staying in the room but not participating, while Geno jerks off, actually weirds Geno out more than it does Sidney.)

They rehydrate and cuddle and trade kisses while talking about their characters' adventures. Anything that didn't go right or anything someone couldn't say in character is a priority discussion, but they always try to mention the parts that work, too. 

Sometimes, it becomes a mini-session with 3rd person narration, without having to get up and actually act it out. Sometimes, they talk about other things they might try, other characters, other settings. Geno's a fast learner. He likes to tease Sidney, watching him squirm with ideas of play that have to wait for a time when teammates won't be seeing their skin nearly every day. Sometimes, Sid thinks he's created a monster. Sometimes, his mouth hurts as much from laughing as kissing.

Sometimes, they nap.

**+1. Sidney is DM for their next game.**

The French Riviera is winning as where their next game will be set, because it's somewhere Sidney knows well enough to run as a setting. Probably a more modern era, for the same reason. 

Sidney's looking for a plot that's less cliché than spies. All Sidney knows so far is that he wants something where he can tie Geno up and feed him finger food. Geno has volunteered to be Sidney's toy-boy, because he thinks he's so funny. Sidney will probably end up taking him up on that, because, well, it is.

**Author's Note:**

> You can also comment anonymously at the kink meme prompt here: http://thesinbin.dreamwidth.org/1580.html?thread=1516332#cmt1516332


End file.
